Only Companion
Subtitle: Japanese Poems of Love and Longing (Shambhala Centaur Editions)
Edition: Rev Sub edition
Publisher: Shambhala
Published: December 17, 1996
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 124
ISBN-13: 9781570623004
Subjects: Poetry texts & anthologies; Japanese Poetry; Japanese; Poetry; Anthologies (multiple authors); Asian; Poetry / Single Author / Other; Translations into English; Waka
Description: Written by court princesses, exiled officials, Zen priests, and recluses, the one hundred and fifty poems translated here represent the rich diversity of Japan's poetic tradition. Varying in tone from the sensuous and erotic to the profoundly spiritual, each poem captures a sense of the poignant beauty and longing known only in the fleeting experience of the moment.

The translator has selected these five-line tanka - one of the great traditional verse forms of Japanese literature - from sources ranging from the classical imperial anthologies of the eighth and tenth centuries to works of the early twentieth century.